An area of showers and thunderstorms in the Caribbean Sea could become another rare November hurricane next week, forecasters said, but its path is still unclear.
The disturbance is in the western Caribbean and will probably become a tropical depression by the end of this week, the National Hurricane Center said. It will meander over the western Caribbean this weekend then move northwest early next week. Forecasters said it has a 40 percent chance of forming within two days and an 80 percent chance of forming within a week.
Storms so late in the season are rare. But the disturbance could become “a formidable November hurricane,” Florida meteorologist Michael Lowry wrote in a newsletter. It would follow Hurricane Rafael , which pounded through the Caribbean last week and later fell apart in the Gulf of Mexico.
The disturbance will be named Sara if it strengthens.
It could take several paths . It could hit a cold front this weekend and be carried east and out to sea. It could linger inland over Central America. Or it could turn toward the Gulf of Mexico and possibly track toward Florida, Lowry said.